Essay Example on UC: A Premier Center of Learning & Research Since 1868

University of California (UC) is one of the major colleges in the United States, which was founded in 1868. As of 2019, California has ten campuses with a population of over 300,000 students, about 21,000 faculty members, and about 144,000 staff members (Schuller, 2019). UC's mission statement is that the university is aimed at serving the community as a center of learning and research through the transmission of advanced knowledge. The university key objectives are public service, research, and teaching. Teaching involved educating students at all levels from undergraduate to the highest rank. Thorough the various academic programs, students are equipped with sufficient skills to enable California's economy to be competitive. Regarding research, University of California owns national laboratories and medical research centers to allow students to expand their knowledge (Hulse, 2019). Lastly, through public service programs, scientific discoveries are translated into practical knowledge and innovation that benefits California state. Public resources for such programs are museums, gardens, libraries, and performing art spaces (Schuller, 2019). The primary goal of this paper is to understand UC's mission, strategic plan, and value statement while focusing on a current theme or event and its significance to the campus.

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University of California's strategic plan was designed in 2018. The primary purpose of the strategic plan is identifying the campus's strengths and weaknesses and coming up with ways of mitigating them to create a framework that would help the university successful (Bunzel, 1988). The value statement of CU entails the urge for students to live in integrity, be responsible, and have civility. The value statement is guided and inspired by the Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

One of the current issues in UC is the admission process of new students. On June 2019, UC's administration announced there would be new steps, procedures, and policies to govern the admission of undergraduate students (Hulse, 2019). Since the institution is a public university, it is obligated to provide the highest standards of admission by upholding integrity while admitting students in all its campuses. The campus's Compliance and Audit services (ECAS) was established, and the body reports to the Board of Regents to guide its effort in the admissions event (Douglass, 2019). In the latest audit that was submitted, several individuals who try to interfere with the admission process were identified and reported to the board. The new event regarding admission is aimed at ensuring that admissions are transparent and that students are chosen in a fair manner based on their merit and achievement.

There is a zero-tolerance policy in the current admission process, and cases of fraud are taken seriously (Douglass, 2019). Although the administration believes that the admission process is fair, it must acknowledge and accept Compliance and Audit Services' recommendations so that the institution can continue to hold itself in the highest standards. The strongest tools are procedures are being implemented and put in place to detect any instances of fraud in the admission practice. Staying proactive and transparent will enable the campus to be better in the future. President Napolitano asked all University of California chancellors to develop plans and procedures to implement the recommendations given by the Compliance and Audit Services (Fajnzylber, Lara, & Leon, 2019). Following the University of California Regents policy, legacy admissions are forbidden, and no preferential admissions are granted to alumni or donor's children. With the new procedures and policies of admission, UC will fulfill its goal of offering its students with a top-notch college education to maintain the university's glory as one of the best public research institutions.

UC's culture, structure, and processes align with the currently ongoing event of making changes in the admission process. For instance, one of the significant elements in UC's value statement is integrity. In the past, there lacked a level playing field or applicants who wished to join UC colleges. For instance, children of donors and alumni of the institutions would be directly admitted regardless of whether they had qualified or not (Browne-Miller, 1996). That would cause some deserving students to lose a chance of studying in one of the most coveted research institutions in the United States. However, with the ongoing and current event, all admission policies and procedures are followed, and admission is based on merit only (Schuller, 2019). Elimination of fraud will enable UC campuses to fulfill their mission and value statement. For instance, the value statement aims at identifying weaknesses in UC's system and mitigating them. In this case, the weakness was fraud, and ECAS is a vital body to align the system with moral values.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the primary goal of this paper is to understand UC's mission, strategic plan, and value statement while focusing on a current theme or event and its significance to the campus. UC's mission statement is that the university is aimed at serving the community as a center of learning and research through the transmission of advanced knowledge. The aim of the strategic plan is identifying the campus's strengths and weaknesses and coming up with ways of mitigating them. One of the current issues in UC is the admission process of new students. The campus's Compliance and Audit services (ECAS) was established, and the body reports to the Board of Regents to guide its effort in the admissions event. There is a zero-tolerance policy in the current admission process, and cases of fraud are taken seriously. UC's culture, structure, and processes align with the currently ongoing event of making changes in the admission process.

References

Browne-Miller, A. (1996). Shameful Admissions. The Losing Battle To Serve Everyone in Our Universities. Jossey-Bass, Inc., 350 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA 94104. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED388187

Bunzel, J. H. (1988). Affirmative-Action Admissions: How it Works at UC Berkeley. The Public Interest, 93, 111. http://search.proquest.com/openview/2c9d488ffbf3925db90e79caf04d0aa6/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1817076

Douglass, J. A. (2019). BERKELEY VERSUS THE SAT: A Regent, a Chancellor and a Debate on the Value of Standardized Testing in Admissions February 2019. https://cshe.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/publications/rops.cshe.3.19.douglass.berkeleyvssat.2.3.2019.pdf

Fajnzylber, E., Lara, B., & Leon, T. (2019). Increased Learning or GPA Inflation? Evidence from GPA-Based University Admission in Chile. Economics of Education Review. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775718302577

Hulse, N. E. (2019). Preferences in College Admission. Society, 1-4. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-019-00380-7

Schuller, H. (2019). Affirming the Courts Decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. Grove City CJL Pub Pol'y, 10, 71. https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/gcjlpp10&section=9